Wireless modems exist that can be inserted, or otherwise interfaced with a computer and that enable data communication over a wireless Wide Area Network (WAN) such as a cellular type network. Early versions of these cards had connectors that complied with the PCMCIA standard and that were inserted into a slot in the side of the computer. Newer versions have USB connectors for interfacing with the computer. Such modems allow access to the Internet, or World Wide Web (WWW), even where no wired network connection exists and are most often interfaced with a laptop or other portable computing device.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional system 100 in which a data connection can be established over a wide area network using a conventional wireless modem 104. In FIG. 1, modem 104 is interfaced, e.g., via a PCMCIA slot or USB connection, with a computing device 106 via connection 110. Modem 104 can then establish a data connection between base station 102, associated with, e.g., a cellular type network, and computer 106. Modem 104 and base station 102 can communicate via wireless signals 108.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a conventional process by which such a data connection can be established. First, in step 202, a user of computing device 106 inserts, or connects modem 104 with computer 106. In step 204, modem 104 is then tethered to computing device 106. Once modem 104 is tethered to computing device 106, a connection manager running on computing device 106 can be launched in step 206. The connection manager will often display whether the network, i.e., the WAN, is available. If it is, then in step 208 the user can select the network, which will cause a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection to be established between base station 102 and computer 106 via modem 104 in step 210.
In networking, the PPP is a data link protocol commonly used to establish a direct connection between two networking nodes. It can provide connection authentication, transmission encryption privacy, and compression. PPP is used over many types of physical networks including serial cable, phone line, trunk line, cellular telephone, specialized radio links, and fiber optic links such as SONET. For example, most Internet service providers (ISPs) use PPP for customer dial-up access to the Internet. PPP is commonly used as a data link layer protocol for connection over synchronous and asynchronous circuits, where it has largely superseded the older, non-standard Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) and Telephone Company mandated standards, such as Link Access Protocol, Balanced (LAPB) in the X.25 protocol suite. PPP is designed to work with numerous network layer protocols, including Internet Protocol (IP), Novell's Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), NBF, and AppleTalk.
One drawback to system 100 of FIG. 1 is that only a single computing device 106 can be interfaced with base station 102 via modem 104. This is because modem 104 is tethered to computing device 106. In the related '970 application, incorporated above, a wireless router was disclosed that allowed multiple devices to access a wireless broadband network, e.g., via the wireless WAN, at the same time. Such a wireless router represents the next evolution of broadband connectivity. Such a device enables any consumer electronics device that, e.g., has a USB connector or an 802.11 transceiver to attach to the wireless broadband network. This does, however, potentially create problems for the wireless carriers.
Such a wireless router solution may create unwelcome traffic on the carriers' networks. Carriers prefer to manage the capability of such a wireless router device in terms of: a. what consumer electronics devices are allowed to attach to the broadband network and b. what services are allowed to run on the device. Conventional 3G router devices provide unlimited open access to any Wifi capable device. They do not have built in intelligence to discriminate between one peripheral 802.11 device or service and another to effectively filter those devices/services according to, e.g., programmed rules. Some routers do limit access to the network to a certain number of connections, but this is really not sufficient to address the carriers' concern with respect to the wireless router device disclosed in the '970 Application.